


Painting the Roses Red

by t0talcha0s



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/F, Pre-Canon, Set right after all the flarping violence/drama, but she's not really dead, canon character death, sorta?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-04
Updated: 2016-02-04
Packaged: 2018-05-18 02:52:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5895238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/t0talcha0s/pseuds/t0talcha0s
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Words stuck in the back of Vriska's throat, she'd never felt this before, she didn't know what to do or say, and her pride wouldn't let her say it even if she knew what to say.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Painting the Roses Red

**Author's Note:**

> The title is completely meaningless, it just fit.

\--ArachnidsGrip started pestering ApocalypseArisen!--  
AA: i d0nt want t0 talk t0 y0u   
AG: Look, I don't know HOW I'm even talking to you,   
AG: and I'm not completely ruling out the possibility that you're a hallucination   
AG: but I killed you!!!!!!!!   
AA: yes   
AG: But I'm communic8ing with you????????   
AA: id prefer y0u didnt   
AG: But I am????????   
AA: yes   
AA: but i d0nt see the p0int of dwelling 0n it   
AA: y0u g0t what y0u wanted n0w leave me al0ne   
AA: i have imp0rtant things t0 get d0ne   
AG: Like what!? You're dead!   
AA: i kn0w   
AA: g00dbye vriska   
AA: d0nt message me again  
\--ApocalypseArisen ceased pestering ArachnidsGrip!-- 

Vriska Serket sat stunned and confused at her desk. The events of the past couple weeks or so spinning through her mind. She had paralyzed Tavros, so Aradia had ghosts haunt her (she still shivered at the memory, she had never felt so helpless), so she had Sollux kill Aradia, so Terezi told white-text guy that Vriska had one of his 8-balls, so white-text guy blew up his 8-ball which blew off her arm and eye, so she blinded Terezi, and now Aradia was able to pester her. Vriska was confused, and worried, but not scared, she didn't get scared. Her metal hand, courtesy of her sweaty, horse-obsessed neighbor, tapped a sharp rhythm on her desk. She hadn't meant for all of this to happen, she was just teasing Tavros, it's his fault he was paralyzed, Aradia didn't have to haunt her for it! 

Vriska could still remember the feeling of the cold, screeching ghost surrounding and threatening her. They told her it was her fault they were dead, she killed them, it was just what he lusus needed, she didn't want to kill them all. They screamed like Vriska remembered them screaming in life. 

Vriska got up from her desk, she needed a distraction from all this. 

-

\--ArachnidsGrip started pestering ApocalypseArisen!--   
AA: i t0ld y0u i d0nt want t0 talk t0 y0u   
AG: Yeah I can t8ke a hint, just hear me out.   
AA: ...   
AA: n0 g0 away   
AG: Come on, seriously, I just wanted to say, 

It had been a few days since their last conversation and as Vriska looked at the cerulean and red text flickering on her screen she didn't think she could say what she came there to say, it felt too vulnerable. 

AA: say what 

Vriska could hear the impatience and disdain in her words, she had pestered her for a purpose but it seemed so daunting she couldn't go through with it. 

AG: To say that this is all your fault and you started it.   
\--ArachnidsGrip ceased pestering ApocalypseArisen!-- 

Vriska felt breathless and shitty, that's not what she wanted to say, it had come out so quickly. She felt like a coward and she knew she was one, she should just leave the entire subject alone but she wanted... Something, closure maybe. It felt like a scab she couldn't help but pick but now it was scarred over and she wouldn't address it again. 

-

\--ArachnidsGrip started pestering ApocalypseArisen!--   
AA: have y0u c0me back t0 ridicule and blame me f0r my death again   
AG: No. 

But she's not going to apologize for it. 

AA: then what d0 y0u want   
AA: ill have t0 bl0ck y0u if y0u keep b0thering me when im busy   
AG: What could you possibly be doing?   
AA: y0ull kn0w when its fated f0r y0u t0 kn0w 

Vriska couldn't help but read it ominously, was she plotting some revenge? Was she a ghost because the revenge was her unfinished business? Or was she just being a bitch? For some reason Vriska felt like the bitch here. 

AG: Whatever ghostie, no need to act all ominous and spooky just because you're dead. 

She couldn't help but think that Aradia was pretty ominous and spooky before her death anyway, always poking around for skulls and wielding that whip like Troll Indiana Jones. 

AA: i disagree   
AA: but i still d0nt want t0 talk t0 y0u   
AA: s0 if thats all y0u had t0 say   
AG: No, Aradia w8.   
AG: I wanted to say, 

Vriska felt the urge to back up and run out of this conversation again, never come back to it, never pick this scab. But some lonesome part of her pulled at her twisting stomach and told her despite how vulnerable and wrong she felt saying it, it needed to be said. She took a deep breath, 

AG: I didn't mean for this to happen. 

There was no response from Aradia and Vriska's apprehension mounted until a dam broke. 

AG: Any of it, losing you, hurting Tavros and Terezi and especially not you, well, dying.   
AG: And it's all my fault, it's all my fucking fault all of it and I don't want to admit it but it is and it's just so hard to say.   
AG: And I'm sorry! I've wanted to say it for so long and I haven't been able to but Aradia I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. 

Vriska felt empty, like the scab had been picked and she was bleeding deep, deep cerulean blue all over the floor, that she had just gotten clean from the explosion, until she'd been all bled out. She'd said all she wanted to, well not really, she'd said all she could. Pride stopped her, and she wanted to delete it all. As Aradia doesn't respond her pride built back up, it made her type,

AG: But don't think anything of it ghostie. 

It took while for Aradia to respond, she let Vriska stew in her own shame and guilt and pride. 

AA: y0u sh0uld be s0rry   
AA: but that d0esnt change the fact that i d0nt want t0 talk t0 y0u   
\--ApocalypseArisen has blocked ArachnidsGrip!-- 

Vriska had never felt more betrayed, even after all the betrayal of the week. She clumsily closed her husktop with a metal hand, who's shakiness she blamed on its newness and difficulty to control and not her emotions. She laughed, it was all too damn amusing, how much it all hurt, how much hurt she had caused. Vriska Serket sat stunned and confused at her desk. She was confused, and worried, and scared, she never thought she'd get scared.

**Author's Note:**

> Man it's been forever since I wrote homestuck so here's a ten minute dribble I wrote in the car. I hope you didn't expect too much. 
> 
> My tumblr's barefootcosplayer if that interests you.


End file.
